Every tutorial tells you to add .env to .gitignore. That’s not enough.
Here’s something nobody talks about. .gitignore doesn’t encrypt your secrets. It just hides them from git. They’re still sitting on your laptop as plaintext. Every tool you install can read them. Every script that runs can read them. One accidental commit and your database password is public on GitHub forever. So I built dotlock — […]
You’ll not be replaced by AI if …
There are many reasons why one may not be replaced by AI, not even by a possible future ASI. Here’s one reason that may just apply to you! ❤️ You’ll not be replaced by AI if you can generate creative ideas faster than AI can implement them! 🫡🚀 Note for critics: Current AI models (as […]
SQL Pattern Series #1: The Presence Pattern
Thinking in terms of existence instead of lists SQL Pattern Series #1 of 21 A collection of practical SQL patterns that help developers recognize common solutions to recurring database problems. What You’ll Learn In this article you’ll learn: When EXISTS and IN solve the same problem The difference between set membership and existence Why the […]
No-Code Strategy Builder: Turning a Trading Idea Into Testable Rules
Most trading ideas start as vague thoughts. “Buy when RSI is oversold and price bounces from support.” It sounds reasonable. But the moment you try to test or automate it, the ambiguity becomes obvious. What exactly counts as oversold? How is support defined? What qualifies as a bounce? When do you exit? Without precise answers, […]
I built an MCP server that gives AI persistent memory of your SQL database
A while ago I tried to build a local coding assistant. I downloaded Qwen3, fired it up on my MacBook with 16GB of RAM, and within a day realized the output quality was nowhere close to Claude or GPT-5. The model could fit. It just couldn’t compete. So I changed the question. If I can’t […]
How I reverse-engineered the StudentVue SOAP API to build the only study planner that syncs with it
I’ve been building IntelliPlan — a free AI study planner for students that connects to Canvas, StudentVue, and Schoology. The Canvas and Schoology integrations were straightforward (both have documented REST APIs). StudentVue was a different story. The Problem StudentVue is used by millions of K-12 students in the U.S. through Synergy’s software platform. It’s how […]
Neon Review: Serverless Postgres That Separates Storage and Compute
I migrated a production application from AWS RDS to Neon in January 2026, and I have been running it alongside a comparable RDS instance ever since to compare costs, latency, and operational friction. The application is a TypeScript API serving approximately 180,000 requests per day with a read-to-write ratio of roughly 12 to 1 — […]
Agent Monitoring Is an Infrastructure Workload | Focused Labs
I added agent monitoring to the list of reporting work that has crossed over into SRE production infrastructure, which is annoying but real enough. The trace used to explain a single request. Now it has to carry the agent run through tool calls, subagents, sandboxes, services, approvals, retries, and side effects. It has to support […]
Agent UI Is Runtime Infrastructure | Focused Labs
This lets the front end promise something different than text streaming to a transcript. The transcript can be updated with text in real time. Tool calls can be surfaced as cards with progress and failure states. The latest state of the application can be rendered in real time. Errors can be surfaced with controls to […]
I Spent My Time Building Tokens on Solana. What Got Me Surprised? Read This.
That –program-id flag points at the Token Extensions Program, also called Token-2022. It is the newer, more powerful version of Solana’s original token program. I used it from day one because it supports features the original program cannot do. After creating the mint I had to create a token account and then mint supply into […]